


Survival Instincts

by chancellorxofxtrash



Series: VRAINS Soulmate AU [5]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Lightning gets a soltis body and a monster body too obviously, M/M, Multi, Pain Sharing, Telepathy, although it is debatable how much he considers it fun, he isn't left out from the fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 14:38:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21254984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chancellorxofxtrash/pseuds/chancellorxofxtrash
Summary: Surviving had been Jin's first priority for the past decade or so.Or in which two kids from the Lost Incident are soulmates, which causes unexpected consequences for humans and Ignis alike.





	Survival Instincts

Jin was almost never alone in his life. It was really a given, seeing as he was a younger brother. Most of his life, he had his older brother. Not really hovering over him (teenage older brothers usually don’t), but whenever Jin asked something, he would be there and help. If he ever found Jin’s questions annoying, he never told him, so that was a plus.

He even took him out to playgrounds sometimes, even though it was most likely extremely annoying to a teenager, but at least Jin was not bothered by him either.

Until, of course…

They were at the mall, and there was a big line in one of the stores Shoichi wanted to go into, and Jin was already bored.

“Do we have to? I kinda want to go home.”

Shoichi sighed, looking into the store wishfully - some new fancy shoe (for playing football, apparently) came out recently that Shoichi had been saving up money for during the past months.

“...you don’t have to come in with me. You can stay out here and sit down, if you want to, so you don’t have to stand in line.”

Jin shrugged a bit, walking over to the bench, sitting down.

Shoichi smiled a little, nodding.

“I’ll hurry up, okay? We can get ice cream afterwards.”

“Mmmkay. Deal.”

Shoichi disappeared inside the shop, and then Jin sat down, kicking the floor in boredom. He didn’t quite understand the big deal about that shoe - but apparently Shoichi wanted it, and Jin was promised ice cream, so why not?

The ice cream shop was a few stores away, and Shoichi was still nowhere near the front of the line.

There was no harm in going over and check what flavours they have, right? He would be back before Shoichi would be back and notice it.

He wouldn’t even notice.

~*~

Being closed into the small room was the first time Jin was completely alone. Sure when he was alone in his room back at home, all he needed was to shout, if he needed something.

Now he could shout and scream and beg and cry, and no reply came.

Only the headset.

And the occasional drones.

There was only one thing Jin could do, and that was to keep putting on his headset, and duelling.

Sometimes he felt pain even when he wasn’t playing - or during his duels, before he could have even had a chance to win.

And then…

_ “Hurts. Hurts, hurts, hurts hurts.” _

Like a small, whimpering voice in the back of his mind.

“...huh?”

He looked around. Nobody, obviously.

He didn’t understand it.

~*~

Jin had no idea how this worked. But sometimes, when he was concentrating, he could hear this girl whimpering in the back of his mind, and then….

_“Are you alright?”_

He concentrated on those words, imagining pushing them towards the girl, and then the whimpering stopped.

_ “Are… you talking to me?” _

_ “...yes. I can hear you. You are in pain.” _

_ “I… I’m not. I am closed into this… and I have to duel, and…” _

Jin’s stomach sank.

_ “...when you lose you don’t get food. And get shocked.” _

_ “...how did you know?” _

_ “Because that is what happening to me too.” _

Was that the point of this? Were they here to work out this… what was that. Tele… uh…

_ “Telepathy” _ The girl offered in his mind. _ “I watched a movie about it once.” _

Jin looked up to the ceiling.

Was that why they were here? Was it an experiment to work out telepathy?

Or was Jin just… imagining things?

_ “I’m Jin. What is your name?” _

_ “I’m Miyu.” _

~*~

Of course, Jin realised Miyu was his soulmate. It was a dead giveaway, that when he felt the pain of his soulmate, Miyu also cried out in his mind.

He still didn’t know if he was going mad or not, but talking with Miyu in their minds helped. Jin told him about his brother, and Miyu told him about that friend she had.

_ “I want to meet her again” _ Miyu admitted. _ “I… I want to apologise to her. She lied to help me, and I could never thank her, or say that I am sorry. I have to survive. I have to get out.” _

Jin was silent in his mind too for a few moments, thinking back to his brother.

_ “...I think my brother probably feels guilty about me, as he did… well, we got separated in the mall when I got taken. I need to get out to tell him this is not his fault.” _

He needed to get out.

It was simple as that, really. He needed to survive. He needed to go back home. And if he had to keep playing duels he will do it. 

No matter how many times.

_ “Then let’s do it” _ Miyu said, in his mind. _ “Let’s survive.” _

Survive.

~*~

Of course, things got worse after that.

The hallucinations started, and Jin…

What was real? Was the rescue real?

Was his brother back home real?

Wasn’t sure anymore, all he knew were these four walls, the VR headset, and the drone that brought food to him when he did well.

And the pain.

The pain was definite.

Not just his own pain either - Miyu’s pain as well.

Was Miyu even real? She had to be. The hallucinations (probably) weren’t, but Miyu had to be, because he felt Miyu’s pain, so she had to be real.

They both had to survive, but Jin felt less and less like surviving.

_ “I don’t want to do this anymore. I open my eyes, and I see things. I don’t want to.” _

He didn’t want to.

Miyu would beg him not to give up, but...

He would eat the food the drone brought in. He would grab the headset.

He would scream when the shocks hit either Miyu or himself.

He would scream when the rescue turned out to be a fake one again.

He would survive.

~*~

He did not notice when he actually did get saved.

It was like being inside a cardbox that was floating in the ocean. He was vaguely aware of the voices of his parents.

Then Shoichi’s voice.

Then a lot of different ones. A new place he got taken into. Darkness. Sometimes he was taken out for a walk, but usually darkness.

Jin always ate the food he got. He needed to survive.

_ “My mom came to visit me” _Miyu said in his mind.

_ “Your mom is weird, Miyu.” _

_ “Well, yes. Hey, Jin, have you talked with anyone yet?” _

_ “I am talking with you.” _

_ “You know what I mean.” _

Jin didn’t reply, just told her what he got for food today, and even complained about the quality, that made Miyu giggle.

He liked hearing her laugh.

~*~

Jin was very vaguely aware that people were worried about him. With Miyu’s help he put together that he was in a hospital now. But he didn’t want to move.

He still felt like he was hiding in a box in the middle of the ocean - and getting out would have meant he would have to yell, or swim to the shore, and… it was an odd metaphor.

But still, he had no idea if he could do it. Or if he even should do it.

_ “What if this is just another hallucination?” _

Miyu didn’t know how to reply - apparently she didn’t have them, during their life in captivity. She had no idea. They felt each the pain of each other, and they could talk about anything, but she could not actually see the horrifying things Jin had seen.

_ “What if it is not, and you are wasting your time?” _

_ “I am not wasting time when I am talking with you.” _

So Jin told himself he was content, listening to Miyu’s thoughts, and Miyu didn’t send her away.

~*~

Actually, Jin even listened to what Miyu was learning, when she eventually went back to school.

_ “Maybe you should wake up from your current state and go to school yourself, instead of freeloading off my mind.” _

_ “Well then, I guess I should stop remembering things for you. You apparently don’t need my help during your tests anymore.” _

_ “Hey that is not what I said and you know it!” _

Jin felt like laughing the way Miyu was pouting even in her mind.

It was nice.

There was really no point to actually change anything. What he needed to know, he got to know through Miyu.

His parents and his brother would eventually move on.

Everyone will be happy.

~*~

Then Miyu went quiet in his mind.

Jin kept trying to prod, and ask for her.

Nothing.

No pain.

No response.

Nothing.

The one thing that he was clinging into, gone, ripped away, and Miyu gave no hints that Jin could remember, that what could have happened.

So. He tried to get up.

But turns out, getting out of the metaphorical cardboard box in the middle of the ocean was hard work. Looking out for your surroundings for the first time in over a decade was hard work.

The first time he managed to focus on something was when he was outside.

Okay. He _ was _outside. Unlikely to be a hallucination anymore. Unless a really deliberate one, in which case - fuck.

Then Shoichi was there, smiling. Talking to him about how they solved the incident that had kidnapped him - and Miyu, and apparently four other kids.

That… was nice. Jin supposed.

That didn’t explain what happened with Miyu.

The next time Shoichi appeared, he asked him to move to Den City with him.

And a glowing figure got out of the tv.

Which was just _ what the fuck, what the fuck, whatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatte--- _

Jin screamed.

~*~

If after the incident he felt like he was floating in the middle of the ocean in the cardboard box, then this time he felt like he was shoved back in the box, which was then nailed shut, and tied to a motorboat which then started speeding around.

Jin really wished he could have screamed more.

~*~

He didn’t quite remember when it stopped.

He was just lying on his hospital bed… huh. Hospital. He was in the hospital.

He had been in the hospital for a while.

_ “...Jin? Are you alright?” _

Hearing the voice in his head made him smile.

_ “Hi, Miyu. Yeah… I think I am. My head is fuzzy.” _

It was alright.

He had Miyu.

Of course, he noticed soon that his memory was… spotty. To say the least. He didn’t remember why was he shutting down that bad for years - he knew he had a reason, but he had no idea _ what _that reason was. He also had no idea when did he start talking with Miyu.

Miyu filled in the blanks.

_ “Huh. I wonder what happened that I forgot.” _

_ “Are you alright…? I mean… it might be surprising, to hear all of this…” _

_ “No, I mean… I do remember my brother telling me about how the ones who did something to me were stopped. Knowing that something happened to me is better than remembering, I guess.” _

_ “It… probably isn’t an accident I was in a coma, right? And that you also… had something happen to you.” _

_ “...probably not. Do you remember anything?” _

_ “...a voice. A gentle voice. She told me it was going to be alright and she is going to come for me.” _

_ “Was it your friend? Aoi?” _

_ “...no. But it did feel… familiar.” _

_ “Huh.” _

_ “Do you remember anything like that?” _

_ “The voice I heard was a lot different.” _

~*~

When it was like he was dragged through the darkness, and Jin wanted to scream, there was a light.

He wasn’t sure if that light was painful or comforting, though. Somehow, inexplicably, both.

“You will be by my side all the time from now on” The deep voice said. “That way we minimize the chances of either of us getting hurt without reason.”

On one hand, those words were probably meant to be reassuring, in a way.

On the other hand, it was hard to feel comforted while he was metaphorically dragged through the darkness without brakes.

But not like he could have done anything.

~*~

“...what happened with me?”

“What do you mean, Jin?”

“...please don’t play dumb, big brother. I want to know. I know the Lost Incident happened, and I just don’t remember. But what happened when I was out of it now?”

“...how do you know about that?”

Jin smiled bitterly.

“How about you answer first, and then I answer you?”

Shoichi sighed, closing down the truck, and sitting down in front of Jin.

“Keep in mind, that I didn’t see most of it” Shoichi started. “I got erased before the whole thing played out. The rest I only know from Yusaku.”

Jin nodded, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“Fair enough.”

Jin could see that his brother didn’t want to talk about it - he figured Shoichi would rather wrap him in bubble wrap and keep him safe from everything.

Maybe a few years ago, Jin would have appreciated it - he was busy hiding from the outside world himself, after all.

“I kind of get where Lightning came from. Why he grabbed my consciousness. He is… like me.”

“Don’t say tha---”

“He wanted to survive” Jin said, looking into his brother’s eyes. “So did I. That’s why I shut down for all these years, because I wanted to survive. You said that… Fujiki and Ai, and Homura and Flame, they are as connected as soulmates are. Which means Lightning and I… are the same. He wanted to survive, so he grabbed the one thing that could be used to hurt him. I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same.”

“...you still wouldn’t have destroyed humanity.”

“Are you sure?” Jin smiled bitterly. “I am a lot like you as well, big brother. Didn’t you say that you were ready to throw humanity away to save me as well?”

~*~

Most of the Ignis were already back, and Jin knew exactly what the discussion was about.

The sixth one.

And they were evenly split in their argument.

Jin shouldn’t have eavesdropped, but to be fair, all five of them were in the truck, talking about it, and Jin was outside, and… yes, he was totally eavesdropping.

Windy and Flame were both bitter, angry, and against it.

Aqua… she argued for it. Earth followed her lead.

Ai was hesitating.

_ “What do you think, Miyu?” _

Miyu hummed in his mind.

_ “Well, I can’t call him out on putting me into a coma, if he isn’t back.” _

_ “So you want him back so you can fight him?” _

_ “Mayyyybe. But he hurt you more than he hurt me. So…” _

_ “We are soulmates. If he hurts me again it might hurt you too.” _

_ “If you are willing to take that risk, so am I.” _

Jin took a deep sigh, and stepped inside the truck, and all five Ignis looked at him.

“I think I should get a vote too.”

They were silent, and it was Aqua, who nodded.

“Yes. Yes, I think you should.”

Jin walked in, sat down, and looked into Ai’s glowing eyes.

“I need answers. Answers that only he can give me.”

Ai looked at him, and then nodded.

“Alright. Then my vote is yes too.”

~*~

“Hey, you can tell truth from lies, aren’t you? Do you think I talked Ai into something he didn’t want?”

Aqua was in her SOLtiS body (looking like an actual magical girl, with huge pigtails and blue hair), walking down the street on Jin’s side, and she shook her head.

“No. He really wishes for Lightning to be back, and things to be back how they were. He was just hesitating, because of how angry Flame and Windy were.”

“Do you think Flame and Windy will accept it?”

Aqua was quiet for a few moments.

“That will depend on how Lightning will act once he will be back.”

Jin was quiet too, and he realised where were they headed.

“Miyu is your origin, right?” Jin didn’t need confirmation, and Aqua knew it, but she still nodded.

“And you two are soulmates.”

“They told me that… does that mean that Lightning felt Miyu’s pain, and you felt mine?”

“Yes. I feel Miyu's pain like it would be my own, and yours and Lightning's a bit muted."

Aqua walked into the hospital, and Jin followed her, right up to the hospital room.

Their eyes met with Miyu.

And Miyu smiled.

~*~

“It’s odd. Being able to touch you. Hearing your voice out loud.”

“I can go out to the corridor, and we can go back to talking mentally, if that’s what you want.”

Miyu laughed, pushing Jin’s shoulder playfully.

“Don’t be an idiot, Jin.”

Jin also smiled, sitting next to Miyu on the hospital bed.

“Are you sure you are okay with Lightning coming back? He put you in a coma.”

“He did a lot worse to you, and yet you are fine with it.”

Jin frowned.

“I wouldn’t say _ fine. _But things don’t really add up. I want to hear his side of things.”

Miyu nodded, and took Jin’s hand.

“And if you hear it, I am going to hear it too.”

“I am not your telephone.”

“You kind of are.”

~*~

Maybe Jin was slightly biased, but he thought that his Ignis had the most beautiful SOLtiS form.

He was aware that Lightning talked with the other Ignis first. Obviously.

It took Jin a while to track him down, and he managed to find him deep within a corner of VRAINS - it looked like a flower field. (He vaguely remembered standing on that flower field before, but his memories were fuzzy, to say the least.)

Lightning was on the shorter side, thin, with well-definet cheekbones - his skin brown, his hair on the longer side, and different shades of gold. When he looked at Jin, his eyes were glowing, and green, and his expression was unreadable.

He also wore somewhat elegant clothes - gold and white, resembling parts of a suit, although he was not wearing a jacket. Instead, he had a white vest on, which had golden patterns embroidered into it, the sleeves of his brown shirt rolled up, and a purple tie tucked neatly under the vest. He was also wearing purple framed glasses, for whatever reason, as he obviously did not need one.

“I didn’t expect you to visit me.”

“Didn’t expect me, or hoped that I wouldn’t come?”

Lighting pursed his lips and looked away.

“You gave me those hallucinations.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“As I told Revolver and Playmaker. It was fun.”

“Bullshit. I don’t buy it. You were barely more than a few codes of data slowly gaining sentience. Why did you do it?”

“I am better than the other Ignis. I woke up to my abilities sooner.”

“Maybe. But want to know why I think you did what you did?”

Lightning crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“Enlighten me. I can’t wait.”

“You wanted to help. You wanted to encourage me. But you didn’t yet know or understand the human psyche enough so it backfired. You made a mistake. You messed up”

“I don’t make _ mistakes” _ Lightning hissed, glaring at Jin. “I am the best of the Ignis. I do not _ mess up.” _

“Well, you did” Jin shrugged. “And since then you are busy telling yourself it was your plan all along.”

“You are wrong.”

“We could get Aqua here to check if you are lying or not. You know I am connected to Miyu, and she is Aqua’s origin… it can be done quickly. Wanna prove it to me?”

Lightning did not reply, just turned his eyes away.

Okay. Score.

Next topic.

“It all comes back to that, doesn’t it? That the Hanoi grabbed two kids who were incidentally each other’s soulmates. So you and Aqua got data from both Miyu and me, so both of you developed faster than the other four Ignis did. That’s why you are smarter than the rest of them, and that’s why Aqua can tell the lies from truth that well. And this bond affected Miyu and me too, that’s why we have a telepathic bond that most soulmates don’t.”

“That one is plausible” Lighting replied. “We developed through the bond created between our origins and us. So it is fitting that the more bonds are there, the more we can learn, and that it would have an effect on our origins too.”

“But you knew this already” Jin pressured Lightning. “You knew this. That’s why you closed Aqua away. That’s why you put Miyu into a coma. That’s why you kidnapped me. You knew that these bonds were weaknesses that could be used against you, so you decided to try to avoid that happening. To take control over these bonds.”

“You talk like you know me, when really, we just met.”

Jin laughed bitterly.

“Yeah. I think I know you because I understand wanting nothing more than to survive. Even if it meant severing all the bonds I had.”

Lightning glanced back at him, and Jin sighed.

“Anyway. This is what I wanted. To finally look into your eyes and talk with you.”

“And now what? Never talk with me again? Or will you forgive me?”

Lightning’s last words were mocking, and Jin just smiled.

“Forgiveness implies I am angry at you.”

Now that obviously took Lighting off-guard, his eyes widening, and Jin just shook his head.

“I barely even remember anything you actually did to me. I know it because Miyu and Shoichi told me. And as I said, I understand the need to survive. So no, I don’t forgive you. Because I am not even angry.”

Jin turned away, and logged, out, leaving a completely bewildered Lightning behind.

~*~

Jin wasn’t even surprised when Lighting started to lurk around the hot dog stand, even if it was obvious that the others had no idea how to treat him yet.

Right.

He needed to take matters into his own hands.

“Get inside the truck.”

“...what?”

“Don’t be a freeloader. Get inside.”

This is how it happened that Lighting was standing behind the counter, still in his semi-elegant outfit, and a Café Nagi apron, and a frown on his face.

“You know, it suits you.”

Ai was also in his SOLtiS body, sitting by one of the tables, and grinning like a nuisance, which just made Lighting frown even more.

“I know right, it’s almost as if he was designed to be a customer service android.”

Jin and Ai were snickering, and when Ai spoke again, his voice was a bit lower.

“Hey, Jin… thank you. For saying that he should come back.”

“I didn’t do it for you.”

“I know” Ai nodded. “But still. Thank you.”

Jin looked at Lighting again, and smirked.

“Otherwise we would have missed this view. That would be a shame.”

“Absolutely. He looks like he gonna scare off the customers, though.”

“He just gonna work on it a bit, that is all. I’m gonna talk my brother into giving him shifts.”

~*~

Shoichi actually had a small apartment where Jin could move in comfortably. He still needed to figure some things out - like whether he actually knew enough through Miyu to enroll in school, or if he even wanted to. Shoichi wasn’t rushing him, and the others were willing to help him catch up too, if that was what he wanted.

He didn’t know what he wanted yet, but he was tired of floating endlessly. He wanted something to work forward.

He just needed to find what was that something.

Jin was vaguely aware there was some chaos in Link VRAINS too, but that was one thing. He didn’t have his own deck, even though he did have a duel disk sitting around. Well, his old deck was… well, old. He considered getting a new one, and ease back into duelling. Maybe.

Then his door got kicked in.

“Nothing personal, kid. We just gonna need some leverage against Playmaker and his merry band of misfits.”

Leverage.

Leverage.

_ “...Jin?” _

_ “Yeah?” _

_ “Give them hell.” _

There was a golden light from his duel disk, and Jin grabbed it and attached to his hand.

“Come and get me if you can.”

The whole thing did not last longer than thirty minutes, before Jin walked upstairs to his room, unscatched, all of the attackers having left, completely devastated, and slightly beaten up by a horde of roman soldiers.

Speaking of…

He glanced down at his duel disk.

“You had a bit of convenient timing here.”

Lightning popped out of his duel disk, looking at him with his arms crossed.

“I was keeping tabs on you. Obviously. If you get hurt, I get hurt.”

“You can just say you care, Lightning, I won’t tell anyone. Well, Miyu would know, but that is a given.”

Lightning’s eyes narrowed, as he disappeared back into the disk.

Right.

Time to face the others.

_ Into the VRAINS! _

~*~

Obviously all the others were baffled when a new duelist appeared - with a white-gold colour scheme, long, white hair, and stars on his clothes.

And Lightning on his arm.

“Don’t look at me like that. He did not brainwash me this time. Actually helped me out when some people wanted to take me hostage.”

It was Playmaker who stepped closer, looking into his eyes.

“Are you sure about this?”

“I can kick your ass too, Playmaker.”

“What if Lightning acts up again?” Flame asked on Soulburner’s arm.

“He can try” Jin said, deadpan.

Playmaker nodded.

“What would you like to be called?”

Jin smiled a little.

“Lightbringer has a bit of a ring to it, don’t you think?”

Playmaker also smiled a little.

“Welcome to team then, Lightbringer.”

~*~

“Isn’t Lightbringer another name for the creature Lucifer in one of the human religions?”

“Multiple religions, I think. And yes.”

“You are allying with me, and giving yourself a name after a fallen angel. It’s a wonder your allies don’t suspect you.”

Lightning was manning the truck again, and Jin was leaning on the counter from the outside, propping his head.

“I think that your biggest problem is, Lightning, that you overthink everything.”

“I don’t have to overthink it to know your brother won’t like this.”

“I will deal with my brother. Don’t even worry about it.”

“I don’t worry.”

“Liar.”

Jin was smirking, and Lightning frowned, wiping the counter.

“I still don’t get why you picked that name.”

“Lucifer fell, yes. But if he wouldn’t have rebelled, if he wouldn’t have fallen, I think his current situation would have suffocated him. And the things he had to do after, they were probably what he needed to grab into, to survive. I can relate to that. I thought you could, too.”

Lightning stopped wiping, looking at Jin with his bright green eyes.

“Me?”

“After all, Lucifer rebelled against his own kind, but for things that he believed were right. He had to fight against other angels. I thought you would find it poetic.”

“...I am pretty sure there are many different interpretations and descriptions of the mythos surrounding Lucifer.”

“Yeah. That’s why we can pick one that works for us, and then ignore the rest. Who else is gonna tell us otherwise? I mean have you seen the names of the others? Lightbringer is an actually reasonable name compared to, say, _ Soulburner.” _

Lightning smirked a little, and nodded.

“Point taken.”

Jin watched Lightning work, and then suddenly leaned forward, pressing a quick kiss to his lips.

“See you later, I’m gonna go visit Miyu.”

He left, once again leaving a bewildered Lightning behind.

~*~

“Should I be jealous? I think I should be jealous.”

Miyu was let out of the hospital, and the two of them were walking down the sidewalk.

“I don’t know. Are you jealous? Feelings don’t really come through our bond.”

Miyu hummed, and took Jin’s arm, before shrugging.

“Nah. Besides tell me - did he look baffled? I bet he was baffled.”

Jin grinned.

“He was absolutely bewildered. He is always so sure he knows what’s gonna happen, it’s fun taking him off-guard.”

“Is that all? I don’t think that’s all.”

Even though the bond did not deliver emotions, the two of them still didn’t really have secrets from each other.

“...I think he also… needs to learn that things… that people aren’t predictable” Jin said slowly. “That’s what led us into the previous messes, after all. Him thinking humans are like data he can predict and act accordingly. If humanity wants to survive, Lightning needs to be convinced he doesn’t know everything.”

“Oh, so you are taking it up on yourself to kiss the hot android to keep humanity safe. You humanity’s savior, you.”

Jin grinned.

“If humanity dies, so do I. Or something. It’s debatable what would Lightning do with me. Besides, excuse you. I am perfectly willing to kiss him out of that android body too.”

Miyu laughed out loud, and Jin laughed with him, until she pulled Jin down, so she could kiss him.

But even then, they only stopped laughing during the kiss, and they were back to snickering afterwards, as they kept walking.

~*~

When Jin was home alone, his duel disk lit up, and Lightning emerged, crossing his arms in front of his chest, his green eyes narrowing.

“What _ was that, _ Jin Kusanagi?”

“Took you a while to ask me” Jin muttered, shrugging. “Did you have to reboot your systems?”

“No” Lighting sounded annoyed. “But you kissed me.”

“See, you do know what it was.”

“But…” Lightning trailed off. “..._ why? _”

“That was the question you really wanted to ask, wasn’t it?”

Lightning was quiet, and Jin sighed, putting down the book from his hands, reaching his hand out towards Lightning.

“Come here.”

Lightning hesitated a bit, before emerging from the duel disk, crawling close to Jin, even if a bit still unsure. And Jin just took his head between his hands, pulling him even closer.

“As smart as you are, Lightning, you can be really damn dumb.”

“...that is not an answer.”

“It is. I kissed you because I like to see you confused. I kissed you because you need to learn that humans aren’t as predictable as you think we are. But most of all, I kissed you because I wanted to kiss you. You can go with this last reason very easily, and you don’t even have to overthink any of it.”

“...you are nonsensical, Jin Kusanagi.”

“Good” Jin said, proud of himself. “That is the point, Lightning.”

He leaned down, pressing a kiss to Lightning’s face, and he felt the monster shiver under his lips, unsure about how to react.

“Stop thinking so damn much, Lightning. You need to learn to go with the flow. Survival doesn’t always mean you have to plan everything out. On the contrary. You need to _ live _a little, apart from surviving.”

“...not sure I can.”

“You can try. That is enough.”

Jin was pretty sure Lightning did not need to sleep, but when Jin woke up, Lightning was still completely wrapped around him.

It took him like twenty minutes until he could pry the clingy Ignis off from himself.

~*~

“So. Miyu is coming here?”

Lightning was manning the truck again (he swore up and down he won’t do it again after some customers called him a dropout art major, but somehow Jin still managed to push him inside), and Jin was once again sitting outside, and nodded.

“Yeah. So is Aqua and Aoi Zaizen, I think. It will be girls’ day out, and all that.”

The answer was a small nod, and Jin noticed Lightning was frowning.

“You are overthinking something again, aren’t you?”

“Not overthinking, just figuring out different ways the upcoming interactions can go.”

“That is the definition of overthinking, Lightning.”

Lightning’s frown turned deeper.

“I don’t like not knowing what’s going o---”

He couldn’t finish it, because Jin pushed himself up again, grabbing Lightning’s tie, to yank him in for a kiss.

It took Lightning a few seconds to ease into the kiss - Jin could feel his lips trembling for a few moments before kissing back, how Lightning raised his fingers to touch Jin’s face. His touch was gentle, but unsure, like he was just trying to figure out how to be gentle.

The kiss ended, and when Jin pulled his head back again, and smirked, especially when he saw Lightning’s flushed face.

“You can blush. Look at that.”

“...you are gonna be the death of me, Jin Kusanagi.”

Jin’s grin turned even wider.

“You just gotta figure out how to survive me, then.”

**Author's Note:**

> Holy hell. Now I am declaring this series finished. I did not expect to be able to write all five parts, but here we are. At the finish line.
> 
> Thanks for Immi for encouraging me in this nonsense. Definitely couldn't have written these without you.  
Also thanks for Jamie for putting up with my nonsense yelling about this and even reading these even when they don't even go here.  
Also I don't think Zapp, Dan, or Alex will end up seeing this but in case they do - hey y'all also put up with my nonsensical screetching noises over this project so thank you guys also.
> 
> And thank YOU, if you read this. Extra thank you if you read all of them. (A thousand thank you if you had written me even one comment, or a kudo. If you commented to all of them, I would probably die for you.)


End file.
